1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capture apparatus such as a digital camera and a method of controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an image capture apparatus such as a digital camera capable of outputting image data as electronic data, an image capture apparatus is known which can transfer image data to an external device (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-137796). Further, it is known that image data is transferred in parallel with writing to a storage medium during shooting operations, and that image data, selected from a plurality of image data having been written in the storage medium, is transferred.
The former is a transfer process in operations of shooting mode, and the latter is a transfer process in operations of playback mode.
For example, it may be necessary to transfer a previously shot image to an external device immediately after successively shooting in which a large number of images have been shot in shooting mode, or a photo opportunity may suddenly come up during transfer of an image in playback mode. In this case, the user may immediately switch his/her camera to the shooting mode.
However, the conventional image capture apparatuses are not designed for a situation in which operation modes are switched by the user before the transfer process is completed. Such mode switching may cause an abnormal termination of the transfer process.
Further, in the conventional image capture apparatuses, an image transfer process in shooting mode and an image playback process in playback mode are different from each other. Thus an external device at the transfer destination, typically a computer, is required different internal processing according to an operation mode of the image capture apparatus. As stated, switching of operation modes in the image capture apparatus cannot be handled only in the image capture apparatus.